Big Little Lies
What Have They Done?
TV Flash files “What Have They Done?” as a desk essential hour — Big Little Lies (2017–2019) on HBO, season 2, episode 1, aired 2019-06-09, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E01: listed hour 8 of 14 in the Big Little Lies guide, first listed hour of season 2. It aired 2019-06-09 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “You Get What You Need” (S01E07). Next is “Tell-Tale Hearts” (S02E02).
Essential hour: “What Have They Done?”. What Have They Done? returns movie-star athleisure to a solved death — awards-bait aftershock as the second-season product.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Following first-day-of-school events, Madeline is worried by Bonnie's behavior and, later, is shocked when Abigail says she doesn't want to go to college. Mary Louise, Celeste's mother-in-law, offers her unvarnished assessment of Madeline's character. Jane learns from her new coworker, Corey, that she's known in town as one of the "Monterey Five."
Viewer FAQ
Where does What Have They Done? sit in the Big Little Lies guide?
S02E01 is listed hour 8 of 14 — first listed hour of season 2, season 2 episode 1.
When did Big Little Lies S02E01 air?
What Have They Done? aired 2019-06-09 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I need season two?
Season one stands alone as a complete mystery. Season two is aftermath with new cast dynamics (including Streep) and is the argument, not a required second exam.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Monterey moms, movie-star athleisure, a death under the fundraiser smile. David E. Kelley's HBO Moriarty adaptation is Kidman, Witherspoon, Dern, Woodley, Kravitz as a casting event; season one is the closed mystery, season two the Meryl aftershock. Mom-noir as awards bait — domestic violence and friendship sharing the cliffs without dropping the gloss.
Monterey first: school-fundraiser smiles, movie-star athleisure, a death under the cliffs. David E. Kelley adapted Liane Moriarty's novel for HBO (February 19, 2017) as a film-star migration event. Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz in armor that photographs as casual; Alexander Skarsgård in the house. Season one is a closed murder-mystery pressure cooker. Kidman, Witherspoon, and Dern took major acting Emmys. **This was not a soft launch. This was a hard launch in…
Filed against
- Reese Witherspoon as Madeline Martha Mackenzie
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- Nicole Kidman as Celeste Wright
Nicole Kidman’s Celeste Wright made Big Little Lies’ Monterey moms a casting event with a bruise under the athleisure — David E. Kelley’s HBO Moriarty adaptation, Witherspoon, Dern, Woodley, Kravitz, a death under the fundraiser smile.…
- Shailene Woodley as Jane Chapman
Shailene Woodley's Jane Chapman stood in Big Little Lies' Monterey mom-noir as the younger bruise — movie-star athleisure, a death under the fundraiser smile, David E. Kelley's HBO Moriarty adaptation, Kidman, Witherspoon, Dern, Kravitz…
- Laura Dern as Renata Klein
Laura Dern’s Renata Klein brought Monterey-mom steel to Big Little Lies — athleisure, a death under the fundraiser smile — then walked Lynch’s eighteen-hour Twin Peaks: The Return like unfinished business. HBO mom-noir as a casting event;…
- Zoë Kravitz as Bonnie Carlson
Zoë Kravitz’s Bonnie Carlson stood in Big Little Lies’ Monterey mom-noir — movie-star athleisure, a death under the fundraiser smile, David E. Kelley’s HBO Moriarty adaptation as a casting event. Kidman, Witherspoon, Dern, Woodley,…
- Alexander Skarsgård as Perry Wright
Alexander Skarsgård’s Eric Northman made True Blood’s Louisiana vampire politics look expensive — 2000s catalog pulp, a thousand-year stare, prestige sex-and-gore with a civil-rights wink. Generation Kill and Big Little Lies kept the file…